Who will make the final four of the most prestigious heads up tournament in poker? Today at 12 noon the Round of 16 for the $25,000 Heads Up No-Limit Hold’em championships get underway and what a doozy it is with several big matchups, with players looking to get into the money by advancing to the quarterfinals in the first matchups today and by the day ends we will have our final four.
One of the players hoping to be there is Landon Tice who has rolled through what you can call a nightmare draw so far with defending champion Dan Smith in Round 1 and then had to face one of the biggest crushers in the game in Stephen Chidwick in Round 2. But they both ultimately fell at the hands of Tice. But things don’t get any easy for him as he is now slated to face Chance Kornuth in the Round of 16, which will be the blockbuster match of the day.
Let’s get into the bracket and have a little fun with this by sticking our necks out to make some predictions of who will make the final four today.
Top Quarter:
Daemon Richardson vs Eric Wasserman
Kevin Rabichow vs Sean Winter
Prediction – Sean Winter
I am going to go with Winter in this section to make the semifinals. He has a very tough Round of 16 matchup against last year’s semifinalist Rabichow, a matchup that Winter will just edge out and then take down the winner of Richardson/Wasserman to continue his nice start to the 2023 WSOP.
Top Middle Quarter:
Chanracy Khun vs Gabor Szabo
Landon Tice vs Chance Kornuth
Prediction – Landon Tice
After beating two titans it seems to be in the cards for Tice will continue his charmed run and make the final four. Tice vs Kornuth is the premier matchup of the round, but don’t look past Khun who could also sneak his way into the semifinals.
Bottom Middle Quarter:
Joshua Heinzel vs Anthony Zinno
Chris Brewer vs Tyler Gaston
Prediction – Chris Brewer
Brewer beat everyone’s favorite heads up legend John Smith in round 2 after Smith had taken out Phil Ivey. Brewer spoiled the Smith party and the high roller regular from Oregon will continue to wreck the bracket all the way to the final four here.
Bottom Quarter:
Doug Polk vs Reiji Kono
Isaac Kempton vs Roberto Perez
Prediction – Isaac Kempton
This is an interesting section with Polk headlining it. But I am going to call for an upset in the Round of 16 and predict the recent WPT Champion Japanese player Reiji Kono to take out Polk. Kempton will just scrape past Perez, who was the player to eliminate Daniel Negreanu to set up a quarterfinal that I think Kempton will get through and make the final four.
Obviously, anything can happen in a heads-up tournament, which predictions do you agree or disagree with? One thing is for sure, there will be a lot of attention on this event, especially if certain big names make it through.
